Irony laid her chisel on the workshop table and shook the dust froom her hands. Taking a step back, she admired her handiwork. It was a masterful creation. The statue depicted the removal of AnimaRytak Treepaint from the position of expedition leader. His confused look perfectly captured the pervading atmosphere of the previous year, and not just for AnimaRytak.
-----
It had been going relatively well, until the humans arrived. They must have brought some foul curse with them, for no sooner had they left the gates than things began to fall apart.
It began innocuously. One of the miners ran to me, excitedly informing me that they had breached an expansive cavern, with ample supplies of water, trees, and edible plants. I congratulated them, but left the matter to JohnnyDigs'[1] discretion. I had more pressing concerns.
The BATTEREY was failing.
It must have started during the summer, but no one noticed until the millstones halted in their grooves. Then the mighty wheels would kick back in, churn for a few days, and groan to a halt once more. A quick investigation told me that the water level had fallen dangerously low. How? Was the pump system accelerating evaporation?
No matter, I thought. It is a simple thing to fix. Just start this pump here, and pull that lever over there, wait a little while, and the ungodly racket should be back at full force.
I had just given the order to do so when another miner nearly collided with me. He was on the verge of tears, babbling something about an accident in the mines. After a few minutes, he calmed down enough to speak coherently. Apparently Inod Itonkasben, one of the junior miners, had channeled a staircase out from under his own feet, fallen into the cavern lake, and died. The body was still there, inaccessible under 7 feet of water. Apparently they were friends.
Dodok, Ast, Inod... three had died under my oversight. The thought troubled me. Still, they had died of their own foolishness. Dodok was fishing (fishing!) when the goblins came. Ast... brave, foolish Ast. Inod practically killed himself.
But Inod was not the last.
-----
A few days later, another miner came running up to me. I steeled myself for more death, but he had good news. A second cavern had been discovered, further down. This one was dry as old bones, but enormous. Giant webs stretched from the cavern floor into the darkness above. JohnnyDigs had ordered it walled off until I or a future overseer decided to explore further.
-----
Disaster!
I had completely forgotten about the BATTEREY!
The ceiling was dripping with moisture, and, I pray my eyes deceived me, but I swear there were cracks forming in the north wall. I pulled the water intake lever myself, and sent the order to stop pumping at once. The machine was completely frozen. The seven foot channels were full to the brim with water, and the wheels could not turn. Trembling, I stood there for a long minute, then turned and conscripted eight dwarves to man the pumps. Hopefully I could restart it manually.
-----
Manual pumping failed, of course. The thing was designed by a madman, no sane mind could make it to work. Worse, water was now flooding up and out from the north wall, flooding the entire chamber. One pump operator was nearly killed, four times, after being knocked, four times, into the water channels. Thankfully, he was able to clamber out each time.
A madman had designed it... but I was determined to fix it, if only to spite that authoritarian jerk. I shuffled pump operators around, positioned some on the lower level and some on the upper level, and even tried turning the wheels myself.
Nothing worked.
The entire BATTEREY was coated with mud. The kitchens were beginning to flood.
I had just resigned myself to eating plump helmets while we waited for the excess water to evaporate, when I heard telltale mumbling behind me. Stiffening, I turned. The very devil himself, noodle, stood there, eyes half-mad, muttering to himself. There were... were those scars on his arms? Had he
carved designs into his own flesh?I was about to tell him off, rather sharply, but he didn't say anything. Well, to me anyway. Instead, he sort of... beckoned... with his eyes, and half-stumbled, half-skipped out into the hallway, and around to the backside of the northern wall. He began jumping up and down excitedly, drawing some kind of pattern in the dirt between leaps. I stared at it, uncomprehending.
He scrabbled a pickaxe. He danced back to the well. He poked his head in the water. I swear he laughed with his head submerged. Then he splashed me.
Understanding hit me with the water. Of course! The aquifer!
The miners had just completed a tube from an old aquifer-flooded tunnel to a newly constructed well, and it ran right next to the BATTEREY. We would only have to knock down a few walls and channel out a few feet of stone between the BATTEREY and the water tube to connect them.
The more I considered it, the more I realized what a brilliant idea it was. Aquifers represent a virtually limitless supply of water--and a virtually limitless sink for that same water. Even better, because of the varying density of the containing layers, the movements of the earth, and the fluttering of butterfly wings, the water in an aquifer is always
moving. If we connected the aquifer to the BATTEREY, all the excess water my negligence had accumulated would be swallowed up by the aquifer, and then the aquifer itself would help maintain the perfect level of water within the machine. Further, the aquifer itself would create enough flow to keep the wheels moving, making the pumps obsolete! For a moment I considered doing away with the pumps altogether... but then I looked back at Noodle. His brief moment of "sanity" seemed to have passed, and he was back to arguing with himself and scratching meaningless symbols in the dirt. No. I would not destroy this, his last great creation. The pumps shall remain.
-----
One great crisis had past, but more were just around the corner.
Once again a miner met me in the corridor. This time he had two bits of news. The good news, was that JohnnyDigs' team had discovered a third cavern, deep underground, filled with all manner of exotic underground flora (and, undoubtedly, fauna). The bad news... another exploratory shaft had uncovered a twisty passage connecting the second and third cavern layers. The mason sent to wall it off had sealed himself into the cavern. Instead of waiting for rescue, he had marched straight up into the second cavern, mapping the cavern as he went. Miners had been dispatched to rescue him at the top of the cavern, but they were delayed and by the time they reached him, he had died of thirst. They found strange claw marks on his body, and strands of thick, gossamer web.
-----
The year wore on. It felt like 10 years had passed since the BATTEREY's completion. Many things had been accomplished since then.
The first floor of the new dormitories was finished, though it still required doors and furniture.
Two new wells had been installed in the dining hall, and a new food and drink storage room had been excavated beneath it.
The new hospital was up and running, though it still lacked skilled professionals.
A defensible causeway had been completed, granting increased safety from the frequent goblin incursions.
The farms had been expanded, including 3 protected surface plots. The food and drink stores were bursting.
The fort was stable, healthy. But I could no longer direct it. Someone else would have to step in and take over.
-----
These were my thoughts when the last goblin ambush of 753 arrived.
A junior mechanic was caught by surprise, and perished under a hail of arrows.
Soon after a metalcrafter was killed by an arrow to the brain.
The squads, who had sortied out onto the causeway, retreated into the gate when they saw the first few arrows flit past. All except for three.
Karakzon Besmararek Kilrudatesh Tosed, Ingiz Thadinod, and Unib Tileshcerol charged up the mountainside to confront the slayers of their brethren.
The battle was fierce. Unib fell first, his skull bashed in by a goblin mace. Several goblins also succumbed to the dwarven onslaught, but then Ingiz collapsed from the pain of multiple arrows, after striking down two goblins.
Karakzon kept fighting. He killed the last three goblins by himself, then carried his wounded partner back to the hospital.
-----
Three more dead, and one between life and death. I cannot continue. I know not who will lead in my place, but I am stepping down at the end of this month. Let another care for 754.
=====
[1] Head Miner of Deathgate from 753-.
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Player's Notes
The main achievement of this turn is the new entryway, the new dormitories (still unfinished), and locating each of the cavern layers. There's also about 1000 prepared food, and 1000 drinks, and a ton of beds, so the next overseer shouldn't have to worry too much about basic necessities.
The military needs better armour. Steel if possible, though it'd require a lot of charcoal. Also... as mentioned earlier, we lost two hunters this year. There are actually three dwarves with decent marksdwarf skill, though one is currently acting as mayor. Someone needs to make them into a marks squad and stop this hunting nonsense. It's getting too many good dwarves killed.
The military... I shuffled their schedules around trying to eliminate the bad thoughts from lengthy patrol duty, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Might want to look into that.
Might also want to trap the causeway. We should be getting sieges soon. Possibly from more than just goblins. >_>
I *think* the caverns have been properly walled off. Don't quote me on it though.
Dig some more big empty stockpile rooms in the soil. Not only will it help avoid clutter, underground soil will now sprout trees, bringing us one step closer to steel production.
I designated an expansion to the magma forges/smelters at the end of winter, but no one got around to digging it yet. It's not very much... try to cover the holes with the dark X's though.
----
Graphics pack is Pheobus's.
Good luck.
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=4403
Author
Topic: Deathgate - And We Must Scream (Finished Succession Game) (Read 866648 times)